Surrounded by fields, the two targeted buildings served as safe houses and meeting locations for known Zarqawi associates, the release said. Earlier in the day, the terrorists were seen removing a man from the trunk of a car, executing him, then burying his body.

Multiple sources of Iraqi and coalition intelligence provided the basis for this operation, the release said. "Continued, successful strikes against Zarqawi's network of terrorists have degraded his capabilities and significantly eroded his base of support," the release continued.

Zarqawi is a convicted terrorist, tried in absentia in his native Jordan for his part in the October 2002 assassination of Laurence Foley, U.S. diplomat and U.S. Agency for International Development representative, in Amman, Jordan, and the December 1999 "Millennium" plot to attack Western tourists in that country.

He also is a prime suspect in numerous terrorist attacks in Iraq, and $25 million awaits the person who provides information that leads to his death or capture.

Officials identify Zarqawi as the author of a letter intercepted on its way to al Qaeda's top leadership. In the letter, Zarqawi laid out a blueprint to instigate civil war in Iraq by pitting one Muslim group against another and warned that a sovereign and stable Iraq would remove any pretext for terrorists operating in the country.